I've had a whining noise that is getting consistently more annoying that I can't figure out? Whining starts after driving a few miles - frequency of whine changes with acceleration and stops when braking - only occurs while Cayenne is in motion. Sound seems to be coming from somewhere under the shifter, but not 100% sure about that. I took it to a mechanic - he said the power steering fluid was all gone - refilled it......also noted that both front rotors had significant burnt bands on them, but there is still plenty of break pad material left and the car is not unsafe to drive. Mechanic recommended replacing break pads and rotors....but I'm not convinced that this will fix the whining noise. Any clues?

 

i'm gonna guess drive shaft is going bad. Mine is doing the same and I thought it may be the differential but just diagnosed by my local euro tech that it is driveshaft. It is on order and will be replaced this week. Check out vertexauto.com for a good price on remanufactured one if you have a local euro tech that you can have do the work. good luck

 

So, to rephrase, the whine stops when brakes are applied? If that's the case' then it makes sense to inspect the brakes. You could be hearing the whine in the "middle" of car because both brakes are doing it. When was the last time you had your brakes done or fluid changed? There could be dirt in your master cylinder preventing it from retracting fully, or your calipers, or the pads or rotors are wrong. I'm just throwing out some guesses.

 

Thanks for the tips....I'm going to take it to another mechanic that I trust and get a second opinion from him. I'm hoping it's NOT the drive shaft!

The brakes were inspected....but I bought the car used with 40k miles.....I'm at 60K now...don't know if the previous owner maybe put on different pads or rotors....but at any rate, I've only noticed the problem starting in the last 3,000 miles or so.

Funny though that filling up the steering fluid seemed to have reduced how often the noise happens....but it is still happening.

 

peppered, mine started as a light whining sound after driving the car for about 10mins. It would come and go but would start at about 30mph and would stop when I slowed to about 15 or a stop. I searched posts on here and another porsche sight and it sounded like it was possibly the differential going bad. About a $3000-$4000 repair from what I read on here. I took it to my local euro tech and he thought it might be a wheel bearing. I had the differential fluid changed while they had it in testing the wheel bearing. Sound stopped for about 5 days and then gradually returned until now it starts about 10mins into driving and stays fairly bad. Went to Eurotech last week and test drove. We heard the sound and took it back to shop and drove directly into garage and onto lift. They had me turn off the psm and give the car gas. I got the wheels spinning up to about 25-30mph and they could hear the noise. They traced it to the driveshaft and so we ordered a new one from Vertex for about $400 after core charge returns and they are installing for around 200. Hope this is my fix. Not thrilled about it but rather spend $600 than $4000. By the way my Pepper has been pampered. I'm the second owner and I got it when it had 15,000miles on it. It currently has 55,000 miles on it and they are mostly all on flat good roads in South Carolina plus a little interstate driving. Good luck but if it is the drive shaft it's not as bad as it sounds

 

Just got back from getting a second opinion at Lufteknic - Robert Overholser - very experienced Porsche mechanic. We drove it, he listened and then put it up on the lift to take a look. Final consensus was bearing in (front?) drive shaft is going bad - he could see some graphite (powder) - said this was a typical problem that he had seen before. Entire drive shaft is going to be replaced - he recommended not going with the re-built version, but instead going with new (and getting the ful warranty) at a cost of $699 plus labor - totalling around $1,000. This should solve the annoying squeal.

Burnt band on the rotors is suspected to be due to previous owner installing cheap brake pads just prior to my purchase - Robert will take one off while replacing the driveshaft to see what I've really got....but no need to replace pads or rotors with any urgency....

 

glad you got it figured out. Just curious, what is the full warranty you are getting on the new part? The remanufactured one has a one year warranty so just curious what kind of additional warranty the oem one adds. Originally I was going to go with the new one but upon researching the refurbished one, I've heard it has a better bearing in the refurbished ones that is an improvement from the factory. I figured since the oem one only made it 50,000 I'd give the refurb one a try and hope for a better bearing. Sucks these go out so early

 

Not sure about the warranty on the oem one - I want to say 3 years, but would have to check....I guess I should be thankful mine lasted over 60,000 miles before going bad! With a new one....guess I'll be replacing it again in another 3 years....